Ellen Blalock / The Post-StandardEllen and John Leahy, of Liverpool, vote in the Republican U.S. Senate primary at North Central Assembly of God Church on Buckley Road in the town of Clay. John is still marking his ballot as Ellen is about to feed her ballot into the voting machine.

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Onondaga County elections officials don't have the votes counted from six polling sites, but it appears that only about 4 percent of the active Republicans went to the polls Tuesday to pick the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.

With results counted from 168 of 174 polling sites, a total of 3,411 Republicans voted Tuesday in the county, helping Manhattan lawyer Wendy Long defeat Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos and U.S. Rep. Bob Turner to win the nomination. That equals 3.99 percent of the active enrolled Republicans.

The record low was set in 2006 when 4.6 percent of Onondaga’s Republicans voted in a U.S. Senate primary, said Helen Kiggins Walsh, the county's Republican elections commissioner.

In that 2006 race, 4,403 Republicans voted in Onondaga County to help John Spencer best K.T. McFarland for the party’s nomination.

Onondaga County will spend $150,000 to $175,000 on Tuesday's election, primarily to pay nearly 800 polling site inspectors.

Turnout was also low in other Central New York counties. In Oswego County, 4.1 percent of active Republicans voted. The turnout elsewhere was Cayuga County, 4.2 percent; Madison County, 6.6 percent; and Cortland County, 7.9 percent.

Walsh said Onondaga County's voter turnout percentage should slightly change after votes are counted from the final six polling sites.

The votes are not available from six sites because polling inspectors there did not follow directions, Walsh said. She said the inspectors powered down the voting machines without hitting a "close polls" button.

"I'm unhappy about this," she said. "We’ve got to come up with a process to improve this."

She said the results from the final six sites won't be available until later today or Thursday.

The outcome of Onondaga County's primary won't change: Long had 2,793 votes, 2,330 more than her closest rival, Turner, in the unofficial count.

Long will take on incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the Nov. 6 election. Gillibrand has a huge advantage in voter enrollment and in campaign donations. There are nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans in New York. Gillibrand had $9.9 million in her campaign account as of June 6. Long had only $112,396.

Despite the snafu by poll inspectors, Kiggins said the biggest problem encountered in Tuesday's primary election was the lack of voters.